Analyst: Europe’s TV subs reach 262m

Europe will have 262 million TV subscriptions by the end of 2018; up from 205 million at end-2015, according to the European TV Databook report from analyst firm Digital TV Research. Western Europe has had the most growth.

SVoD subscriptions will triple between 2015 and 2018 to 76 million, but traditional pay TV will only add 8 million subscribers to total 186 million. This means that SVoD’s share of the total will climb from 13 per cent to 29 per cent between 2015 and 2018.

“SVoD’s share of revenues will double over this period to 28 per cent in 2018,” advised Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research. “Including AVoD, this translates to $14 billion; up from $6 billion in 2015. Pay-TV revenues will be flat at $36 billion. Therefore, total revenues will reach $50 billion in 2018; up by $7.7 billion on 2015.”

These figures are gross subscriptions. One household can have more than one subscription. For example, a household subscribing to pay satellite TV and Netflix would be counted as two subscriptions. The European TV Databook report provides forecasts for paying subscriptions across 40 countries.